Fax :+390644340632
francesca.dirosa@cnr.it
Research Director at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, Italy
Visiting Scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Lab at the CNR: IBPM, Viale Regina Elena 291 Rome 00161
Dr. Di Rosa’s research activity deals with the induction and the maintenance of immunological memory by CD8 T cells, a highly specialized type of leukocytes controlling intracellular infections and tumors. Although several aspects of CD8 T cell memory have been clarified, a complete picture of the events involved in antigen-induced proliferation and differentiation from naive to memory CD8 T cell is not currently available, nor it is known how memory CD8 T cells are steadily maintained as seemingly quiescent cells, and yet are poised to promptly generate a huge progeny of effector CD8 T cells upon secondary response. A better knowledge of CD8 T cell memory is essential for our understanding of human diseases, including cancer, and the development of vaccines and of therapeutic and diagnostic modalities.
Dr. Di Rosa’s research group has demonstrated that the capacity of CD8 T cells to migrate to the bone marrow (BM) and assume long-term residence in this organ is an important aspect of immunological memory. Current research interests of the group are: 1) to better understand the functional and molecular differences between memory CD8 T cells from the BM and those from lymphoid periphery (blood, spleen, lymph nodes, etc); 2) to compare different vaccination protocols for their capacity to induce CD8 T cell priming and establishment of CD8 T cell memory in the BM; 3) to investigate the protective function of BM memory CD8 T cells against cancer. Dr. Di Rosa has always been committed to science outreach. Recently she was leader of the following exhibits: “Fascination with diversity in immunology” (original title: “Immunologia, il fascino della diversità”), at the CNR, Rome, Italy (2023); “Vaccination, a time machine”, at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition, London, UK (2024).
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Full list of publications (1993-2024) in ORCID (ID: 0000-0003-0252-9138) and Scopus (ID: 6602148381)
Selected publications (2019-2024)
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CURRENT LAB MEMBERS Dr. Lorenzo Lucantonio, MSc student Dr. Ambra Natalini, MSc and PhD student Dr. Sonia Simonetti, MSc and PhD student Dr. Daniele Runci, post-doctoral fellow
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WITHIN IBPM
Prof. Adrian Hayday, Francis Crick Institute, London; King's College, London, UK COLLABORATION TO ORGANIZE IMMUNOLOGY EVENTS IN ROME: Since 2014 Dr. Di Rosa co-organizes the “Roman Immunology Day” (Giornata Romana di Immunologia, GRI), together with Dr. Luca Battistini (Fondazione Santa Lucia), prof. Angela Santoni (Sapienza University) and prof. Vincenzo Barnaba (Sapienza University). The GRI is a 1-day event that is held 2-3 times/year at Sapienza University or at CNR. It is a meeting of the immunology community in Rome usually having 1-2 lectures delivered by foreign invited speakers and 5-6 talks by local speakers. |
TITLE: MD (1990), PhD (1995) RESEARCH POSITIONS 2001-2006: Researcher (Institute of Genetics and Biophysics “A. Buzzati-Traverso”, CNR, Naples, Italy) 2013-2016 Adjunct Professor of Immunology, Msc Degree in Applied Biology for Molecular, Cellular and Patophysiological Research, University of Rome 3, Rome IMMUNOLOGY SOCIETY AND ADVANCED SCHOOL 2014-2021 Member of the Board of Directors, Italian Society for Immunology, Cinical Immunology and Allergology (SIICA, www.siica.it). As member of the SIICA board, dr. Di Rosa initiated the SIICA project “Ricercata” for gender equality, that in 2023 received the Competition4Ideas Award from the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS, www.iuis.org). See event “Ricercata 2024: il premio per chi torna a far ricerca dopo la maternità” at the link https://video.corriere.it/obiettivo-5-universita-femminile-plurale/858293ee-dc62-11ee-9cc9-ae75d527b8c3 (from 1:20:22-to 2:03:00) 2019-2020 Italian representative of the Gender and Diversity Task Force of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS, www.efis.org) 2019 to the present and 2001-2004: Member of the Board of Directors, Advanced School of Immunology “Ruggero Ceppellini” founded by Serafino Zappacosta (www.ceppellini.it) SCIENCE OUTREACH 2016-2021 Co-organizer, and speaker, in educational events for high school students. See for example SIICA School UnivaxDay Roma 2021, event with >45k visualizations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVVlviKSL7k&t=750s 2007 Co-author of immunology chapters for Science & Technology collective volumes (edited by Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da G. Treccani) 1997 Co-author of immunology chapter for Science & Technology collective volumes (McGraw Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology 1997). 1993-1995: PhD student /Post-doctoral fellow (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland, USA) 1990-1995: PhD student (Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology and Pathology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy)
2023-2024 post-graduate master’s degree in “Science communication and innovation” at the University of Trento 2023 specialisation course in “Event and museum curatorship” at the European Institute of Design in Rome
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